Solved Windows S Mode Computer Bought in Error

Just to reiterate fairly widely held opinions:

andrew129260 said:

To get anything remotely decent in the pc space for a brand new Windows laptop, you need to pay a minimum of about $400.

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and
"Not all cheap chromebooks are bad, but pretty much all windows ones are."

Wisewiz said:

Just to reiterate fairly widely held opinions:

and
"Not all cheap chromebooks are bad, but pretty much all windows ones are."

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Yeah, that's pretty much the truth.

It's also part of the reason that I still maintain that a lot of these starting Apple laptops aren't that terribly priced when you look at the full picture. Apple doesn't offer a fabulously low spec absolute piece of crap barely works machine. You get a nice build quality, you get a great screen, you get arguably one of the best gesture based touchpads that exists and the new M1 based processors have fantastic power to battery life ratios out there. And you get 1 version of the OS. Not Education, Hot Home, Not Enterprise, Not Pro, Not S mode.....Just Mac OS.

And finally . . .

The S-mode computer has been returned without issue. She got a "gift card" with the $169 plus taxes she paid.

We went shopping in Walmart to see what they had. Wally World has upgraded its offerings!

We found a Lenovo 15.6 originally priced at $619 for $499! Ideapad 5 15ABA7.

Windows 11 Home, 16 GB RAM, and a 500 GB SSD drive. So far, no "S" in sight!

Bree said:

Beg to differ....

View attachment 90798

Amazon.co.uk

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Ok but still not quite as good taking exchange rate into account (mind you our prices are high mostly due to VAT and US prices are pre Sale tax)

Wisewiz said:

Just to reiterate fairly widely held opinions:

and
"Not all cheap chromebooks are bad, but pretty much all windows ones are."

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I somewhat disagree.
Opinions are not fact.

The FACT is that there is a market for low cost limited capability laptops.

As I said before its primary market is for school children.

I have one I use when travelling (about 10% of cost of my main laptop).

If the travel laptop gets stolen, it is not a significant loss - just buy a new one.

So when people say it is a bad decision to buy such a device, they are only looking from their own perspective rather than looking at the bigger picture.

Many would say the same about Smart cars but they still have a market. They (sedately) get you from A to B at low cost and suit many persons needs (e.g. local shopping) and budgets.

So in the end - horses for courses.

Wynona said:

And finally . . .

The S-mode computer has been returned without issue. She got a "gift card" with the $169 plus taxes she paid.

We went shopping in Walmart to see what they had. Wally World has upgraded its offerings!

We found a Lenovo 15.6 originally priced at $619 for $499! Ideapad 5 15ABA7.

Windows 11 Home, 16 GB RAM, and a 500 GB SSD drive. So far, no "S" in sight!

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Whoops! I forgot the best thing (well, not really, but . . .) Microsoft 365 Office came with the Lenovo! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! Of course it's only one year, but that's OK.

Carol found this one and I was sunk! I had to have the Lenovo too! Soooo, here we are at last . . .

Everyone is happy with the results.

Wynona said:

So far, no "S" in sight!

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S mode is not a bad thing. It does serve a useful purpose and can be upgraded to the full version if wanted. It's the way under powered laptop and no way to upgrade it that can be a problem. My wife's niece is using her laptop for school work so it wasn't a total loss. I haven't talked to her to see if she took advantage of the one year Microsoft 365.

Winuser said:

S mode is not a bad thing. It does serve a useful purpose and can be upgraded to the full version if wanted. It's the way under powered laptop and no way to upgrade it that can be a problem. My wife's niece is using her laptop for school work so it wasn't a total loss. I haven't talked to her to see if she took advantage of the one year Microsoft 365.

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I agree; in fact I almost recommended a nice higher end Lenovo with S on it, but changed my mind when we saw the ones we bought.

The problem is that most, if not all, S machines are lacking in the storage department plus they cannot be upgraded. That will put me off every time.

If, and it's a big IF, those totally inadequate machines aren't up front and center with the low ball price factor. That is just wrong!

Wynona said:

I agree; in fact I almost recommended a nice higher end Lenovo with S on it, but changed my mind when we saw the ones we bought.

The problem is that most, if not all, S machines are lacking in the storage department plus they cannot be upgraded. That will put me off every time.

If, and it's a big IF, those totally inadequate machines aren't up front and center with the low ball price factor. That is just wrong!

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My wife bought a couple of laptops from Wally World and none of them was worth the price of a can of beans. Even though both of them were in the medium price range they were junk. The only computer she bought from Wally World that turned out to be worth buying was her HP All-N-One. Once I replaced the slow spinner with a SSD it took off. We still have it.

I'm curious as to what purposes the laptop is intended for.

If it's just Web related stuff and email, maybe a $170 unit would have been adequate. (Although I might have purchased a Chromebook rather than a minimal Windows device.)

For gaming or editing OnlyFans content, probably not.

You could have bought a used mobile workstation on eBay for the same amount.

Unlike consumer laptops, they're repairable and upgradeable.

HP Zbook and Lenovo Workstation is what you want.

bobkn said:

If it's just Web related stuff and email

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With such low power and a small eMMC drive one is very limited on what they can do with it. My wife's niece is using her laptop for school work. She still has the Laptop my wife and I gave her if needed.

bobkn said:

I'm curious as to what purposes the laptop is intended for.

If it's just Web related stuff and email, maybe a $170 unit would have been adequate. (Although I might have purchased a Chromebook rather than a minimal Windows device.)

For gaming or editing OnlyFans content, probably not.

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I don't know exactly what she's aiming for, but I am totally confident she will need much more than 57.2 GB of hard drive space.

According to CoPilot:

"Windows 11 Home requires a minimum of 64 GB of storage space for installation. This means that your computer’s SSD or hard drive should have at least this amount of free space to accommodate the operating system. However, it’s advisable to have at least 100 GB of free space to ensure smooth functioning of Windows 11 123. Keep in mind that this requirement pertains to the base installation of Windows 11, and additional storage may be needed for apps, updates, and personal files.

If you’re planning to upgrade or install Windows 11, make sure your device meets these specifications. You can check with your PC manufacturer or use the PC Health Check app if your device is already running Windows 10 to assess compatibility. Remember that performance may vary based on higher-end, more capable PCs 1."

I wasn't prepared for this answer, so it may or may not be correct. I thought Windows required less drive space than this.

Be that as it may, as far as I'm concerned, the only thing she could save with any confidence would be simple files such as created by Word or Excel, etc. If she takes very many photos, I can't see much leeway as far as editing goes.

What if she wants to save movies or songs? I'm pretty sure she'd be SOL.

No matter . . . the issue has been solved to her satisfaction via the new Lenvo laptop.

Wynona said:

I wasn't prepared for this answer, so it may or may not be correct. I thought Windows required less drive space than this.

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Microsoft specify that OEMs must provide a minimum of a 64GB drive for their PCs to be licenced to be sold with Windows pre-installed. The MS OEM requirements used to be 32GB, and Windows will run in that, but that turned out to be too small for a feature update to install easily, hence the current 64GB requirement.

Bree said:

Microsoft specify that OEMs must provide a minimum of a 64GB drive for their PCs to be licenced to be sold with Windows pre-installed. The MS OEM requirements used to be 32GB, and Windows will run in that, but that turned out to be too small for a feature update to install easily, hence the current 64GB requirement.

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Thank you, @Bree.

I've always been sure to build or buy a computer with at least a 500 GB hard drive, so never paid all that much attention to how much space Windows required. Now I know for sure!

Spotted this on sale looks ok for the price. Apparently the ram and disk can be upgraded

£179

• Operating systemWindows 11 Home in S mode
• ProcessorIntel® Celeron® N4120
• Memory4 GB RAM
• Storage128 GB SSD
• Display35.6 cm (14"), HD (1366 x 768)

- I only buy ex-lease comps now. Great price and pretty much always good storage. And always updateable!

- Looked up UAC and moved mine up to standard!!

- And Hi, Wyn.

Wynona said:

I've always been sure to build or buy a computer with at least a 500 GB hard drive.....

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I've built a lot of vhdx native boots. Physical disk space is at a premium when using native boot as an expanding vhdx occupies it's full size while booted. So I go for a 64GB vhdx drive as the smallest I can get away with. Never had any problems installing feature updates (a near-weekly occurrence for the Dev/Canary channels).

Bree said:

So I go for a 64GB vhdx drive as the smallest I can get away with. Never had any problems installing feature updates (a near-weekly occurrence for the Dev/Canary channels).

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I agree with @Wynona, I prefer my system drives to be at least 500GB. The reason for me is that I will only install my programs on my C: drive. I just looked at the properties of the C: drive on my old desktop and I'm using 68.2 GB and it has way less programs installed than I have on my new desktop.

Winuser said:

I prefer my system drives to be at least 500GB. The reason for me is that I will only install my programs on my C: drive. I just looked at the properties of the C: drive on my old desktop and I'm using 68.2 GB and it has way less programs installed than I have on my new desktop.

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My systems are all used laptops. I can just about live with a 128GB SSD, but my preferred minimum is 250GB. For a machine intended for heavy use I'll go for a laptop with (or upgrade it to) 500GB. It's only the native boot vhdx files that I'll set at 64GB, for a multi-boot system they all have to fit on the laptop's physical drive.